As producers, transporters and distributors of electrical energy meet in Yaounde, an insight into their union’s milestones shows determination to meet UPDEA’s vision.

Africa’s energy needs are growing. Experts at the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) say demand is expected to grow by about 5 per cent annually over the next 20 years. They also hold that it is critical for Africa to build facilities to provide power to those lacking it, especially in the rural areas where the majority of Africans live.

Africa’s vast hydroelectricity resources are unevenly distributed geographically, warranting the pooling of resources and adopting strategies for cross border sharing of power. This prompted key actors in Africa’s electricity sector to create the Union of Producers, Conveyors and Distributors of Electrical Energy in Africa (UPDEA) in 1970 with headquarters in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. With a mission to be the primary catalyst in the realisation of access to electricity for all the peoples of Africa, UPDEA has become a key actor in African power sector development. At the end of the 1970s, UPDEA created an Electrical Engineering College, ESIE in Bingerville, Côte d’Ivoire, to train African bilingual electrical Engineers.

UPDEA also has a mission to foster the creation of sub-regional or regional power pools to create an electricity market at continental level in the long run. To this effect, UPDEA has initiated and led power utilities to establish the Southern African Power Pool, SAPP, in 1995; the West Africa Power Pool, WAPP, in 2000; the Central African Power Pool, PEAC, in 2003 and the East Africa Power Pool, EAPP, in 2004. It also undertook many regional interconnection feasibility studies and supervised many comparative studies on electricity tariffs in Africa. These achievements are remarkable because, under the West African Power Pool, for example, countries hope to develop energy production facilities and interconnect their grids as well as harmonise the regulatory frameworks that govern their electricity sectors. The Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, estimates that 5,600 kilometres of electricity lines connecting segments of national grids will be put in place. This infrastructure would give the ECOWAS sub region an installed capacity of 10,000 megawatts.